UT Offering More Flu Shot Clinics

University Health Service will provide flu shots from 9 a.m. till supplies last.

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University of Texas at Austin is trying to boost efforts to protect students and staff from catching the flu. The University Health Service Office will provide flu shots Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Students Service Building’s Glenn Maloney Room.

"Because of the increase in flu cases, huge demand and the telephone calls we were getting about folks wanting flu shots, we scheduled an additional flu shots clinic," Sherry Bell, senior program coordinator for University Health Service said.

The flu that put the nation feeling under the weather has also hit UT campus. The Health Service's month-long flu shots campaign last fall immunized around 10,000 people. Despite its effort, health workers diagnosed three times more patients with flu-like symptoms through last Nov. to this Jan. than they did same period last year.

“Even though the flu season generally peaks in January and February, it occurs in the United States through April and sometimes into early May," Bell added. "Getting the flu shot is still the best protection against the flu. It can help keep students from missing midterms, finals and it can keep them from having fun over spring break."

Students must show their ID cards to get the shot. Faculty or staff with no insurance or non-UT Select insurance will be charged $10. Students who got a flu shot already do not need to get another one.

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Tamiflu is a prescription drug that both fights flu symptoms and prevents the spread of the flu to the rest of the body. But because of Texas’ flu outbreak, Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Chris Van Deusen said there are small spot shortages of the drug.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Hispanics are 10 percent less likely to get vaccinated than non-Hispanic whites. According to a CDC survey, in March of 2012, less than 40 percent of Hispanic adults had been vaccinated. That's compared to around 50 percent of non-Hispanic white adults.